Best of BS Opinion: Government must get real on spending | Opinion Specials

Hello, and welcome to the Best of BS Opinion, our wrap of the day’s Opinion page. India’s critical-minerals strategy should harness the growing presence of private Indian mining companies and diaspora-led ventures in resource-rich African countries. These firms need stronger diplomatic and institutional support to secure mining rights, navigate regulations, and connect with Indian manufacturers, notes our first editorial. While overseas assets can diversify supply, India remains vulnerable because it depends heavily on imports and China dominates processing of several critical minerals. The government must therefore strengthen domestic refining, improve geological data and regulatory processes, and make mining commercially viable. Recycling minerals from batteries, electronics and industrial waste should also expand. A successful strategy must integrate domestic and overseas mining with processing, refining, and recycling. FSSAI’s proposed red hexagonal warning label for packaged foods high in sugar, salt, or fat is a welcome first step towards improving public health, but its design and implementation raise concerns, says today’s second editorial. A phased rollout could allow products exceeding only one harmful ingredient to escape labelling, while definitions of added sugar and saturated fat may exclude products with unhealthy ingredients. Imported packaged foods should face the same requirements, and similar warnings could be considered for traditional snacks sold commercially. Labelling alone may not significantly alter consumption, making sustained public education essential. Government campaigns across television, radio, billboards, and digital media should accompany the warnings to promote healthier eating. The finance ministry’s directive to Union ministries to submit realistic revised and Budget estimates is timely, given persistent underspending on schemes,writes A K Bhattacharya. However, he also points out that while the government met its 2025-26 fiscal deficit target through expenditure compression and non-tax revenues, substantial allocations remained unspent, raising questions about scheme design, prioritisation, and ministries’ absorptive capacity. States have similarly failed to utilise allocations, prompting steep cuts in Revised Estimates. The need for disciplined planning is greater amid the West Asian crisis and faster-than-budgeted expenditure in 2026-27, particularly subsidies. Strong tax revenue may preserve the deficit target, but judicious allocation and spending require careful consultation with states. The RBI’s $136 billion dollar-rupee swap inflows have provided crucial support to India’s balance of payments and the rupee, but represent an expensive, temporary solution. Janak Raj stresses the need to address deeper weaknesses, including volatile portfolio flows, weak FDI, subdued private investment and persistent rupee depreciation. He points to India’s relatively high tax burden on foreign investors and regulatory frictions as factors undermining its appeal, and calls for greater certainty, faster dispute resolution and lower compliance costs. He also flags the durable liquidity surplus created by the swaps and calls for absorption tools. India’s priority, he concludes, should be attracting sustainable, non-debt-creating capital. Padmini Swaminathan’s India’s Industrial Policy: A Reassessmenttraces the evolution of India’s industrial policy, examining the competing interests and institutional failures that shaped it. In his review, V Kumaraswamy highlights its critique of India’s command-and-control approach, contrasting it with the closer government-industry collaboration that helped drive industrial success in South Korea and Taiwan. The book examines persistent weaknesses in technology absorption, vocational training, curriculum design and employment generation, while drawing lessons from the TVS group and Tirupur cluster. Kumaraswamy finds the analysis rich and effective in combining history, literature review and policy analysis, though he questions the inclusion of some gender-related material.